WAR
by zan189
Summary: Lily is stuck in the infirmary, anticipating James' visit and another boast while asking her out, when what she finds is courtship. Please r&r! [originally written for the challenge 'War' on lj's hp 500, but story turns out to be too long]


**This story arose from a challenge on lj's hp 500 (stories 500 words or under). However, it turns out I need about 1000 words to tell the tale, no less, which unfortunately disqualifies it for the challenge.**

** ooOoo**

**WAR**

One day as she was on her way down to breakfast, Lily sprained her ankle in the tricky step. Trapped on the staircase, she was thus found by the next Gryffindors making their way into the great hall after her. They pulled her out and saw her to the infirmary. Soon after breakfast was over, rumours had spread about her injured leg and people came to visit her with flowers, sweets and homework. All day long Lily sat contemplating the inevitable: James Potter was bound to sneak his inflated head into the hospital wing to annoy her. She knew it would eventually happen – he had been too obtrusive and impossible for the past weeks not to be using the opportune moment where Lily was stuck in this bed, at his mercy. Madam Pomfrey was going to keep her on observation for another day or two because Lily had a torn ligament on top of the twisted joint which was, even for Hogwarts' experienced matron, a challenge to mend.

By the afternoon she was positively annoyed. James hadn't yet shown up to get the nuisance over with. He would ask her out again, she would say no again. Just as usual. When Lily had gotten this far in her thoughts, the door to the infirmary opened and, expecting James, she quickly brushed her fox-red hair behind her ears, her bright eyes fixed upon the entrance with a forbidding look. It wasn't him, however; Mary from one grade below was brought in by her best friend. A very green tinge adorned her face and she was clutching both hands to her belly. The matron bustled out of her office at once, nodded upon recognizing Mary and murmured, "Menstrual cramps again," matter-of-factly.

The rest of the afternoon passed quite Potter-free and Lily snuggled into her sheets after taking her evening dose of some brown icky medicine. Several hours later, she awoke with a start. Deep in her dream she had felt somebody by her bedside, somebody who was bending towards her. It was deep night, dark, yet in the moonlight she perceived something hanging beside her head. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes; they turned wide with shock: it was James Potter's head. _Only_ his head!

"Potter!" she squeaked out just a little too loud. The dazzled expression on his face turned to panicky and his head shook violently, motioning her to be quiet. Meanwhile, Lily had grabbed the end of her blanket and pulled it all the way over her eyes, with only one buttonhole to spy on the floating head.

"Lily… Lily!" one of his hands appeared out of thin air, stretched towards her forehead and gently tucked the sheet off her face. It was then she realised he must have an invisibility cloak, and some of her guts oozed back into her body.

"What _are_ you doing here at this hour?" she exclaimed in a whisper. James blushed, his eyes examining a spot somewhere in front of where his feet would be. Lily thought his behaviour so odd that, for the first time knowing him, she did not know what to do. It was always easy to put off a boasting, confident I'm-The-Embodiment-Of-Cool Potter. This James didn't even look at her. "How's your leg?" he finally said.

"It's okay."

"Does it still hurt?"

"No… Madam Pomfrey gave me disgusting medicine that is supposed to mend my ligament within the next twenty-four hours. That's why I'm being kept here…" Lily trailed off. Was she imagining things or did she really have a close to normal conversation with James Potter's head? Maybe it was the lack of his body that enhanced his brain to civilised conversation-level.

"Does that hurt? To re-attach your ligament?"

"So far it hasn't." she replied. "Why did you come here in the middle of the night? There _are_ visiting hours, you know."

"Um… I know," he said coyly. Then he inhaled deeply as if he was going to say something very important. But he didn't.

"I've got chocolate frogs and mince pies in the drawer second from the top." Lily observed into the silence. James didn't seem particularly interested in candy just now, but he pulled open the drawer nevertheless, grabbing some of its contents. His hand, which seemed attached to thin air, held the sweets as if they were a bomb about to explode, and on his face she could see stiffness and nervousness. Lily felt a little bit sorry for him; she always did when people were like that. So she patted the side of her bed beckoning him to sit down. He coloured but sat down immediately. "So you've got an invisibility cloak," she remarked as if talking about the weather. He nodded his head and then shrugged the cloak off.

"I've been here since the afternoon," he squeezed out.

"Since afternoon? James, you couldn't have possibly been lurking around that long without getting bored! Whatever did you do all this time, and why were you hiding?"

"Because… I didn't want to be told to leave when you went to bed." This looked more like the disobeying rule breaker known to Lily as James Potter. "And also," he hesitated, "I thought you would just be annoyed and tell me to go away, as you always do." This didn't sound like the Potter Lily knew at all. She had no idea what to say and the silence that had fallen upon his last remark became uncomfortable.

"I could never get bored when I can look at you." He said blushing furiously. Lily felt the heat rise to her cheeks, as well, but James didn't see that, fortunately. He had already taken flight.

Lily didn't know why she couldn't sleep that night. After all, it wasn't the first time James Potter had let her know that he was interested. It wasn't the first time he had tried to coax her into going out with him. In fact, it had never been a secret to anyone in this school that he liked her quite a bit more than the usual fancy goes. All Lily was sure of was that, when she saw the sun rise the next morning, the war between James Potter and Lily Evans was over.


End file.
